ABSTRACT
The Rockefeller Foundation, established a century ago, was one of the earliest modern non-state actors to exert its influence on the institutional structures that emerged in the early to mid-twentieth century to govern international development. Its material resources and deep and extensive networks into domestic and international politics, among other factors, made it one of the most formidable players in the development of the nascent inter national aid architecture. While there are now some 76,000 grant-making founda - tions registered in the United States, an expanding sector in Europe, and embryonic but growing development in East Asia, the number of foundations with substantive inter national activities is comparatively small. They remain dwarfed in numbers by transnational corporations, international nongovernmental organizations (INGOs), and the resources of official development assistance agencies and international organizations. Still, actors such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (hereafter the Gates Founda - tion), as with the Rockefeller and the Ford Foundations before it, while lacking formal authority (and legitimacy), can command enormous influence by virtue of their material resources and role in nurturing, developing, structuring, and shaping international public policy networks. At the same time, new types of philanthropic actors, for example the Acumen Fund, are emerging, bringing with them a distinctive focus on cultivating social enterprise.
